U.S. Representative Jackie Speier has introduced the Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011, prohibiting online marketers and analytics companies from collecting individuals’ online habits.

The bill is seen as the online version of the “Do Not Call” law that prevented telemarketers from calling people who requested not to receive calls.

The Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011 would direct the Federal Trade Commission to develop standards for a “Do Not Track” mechanism that would allow individuals to choose upfront to opt out of the collection, use or sale of their online activities, and require covered entities to respect the consumer’s choice. Failure to do so would be considered an unfair or deceptive act punishable by law. The covered entity would have to disclose its collection and sharing practices, including with whom the information is shared. The bill would allow the FTC to exempt commonly accepted commercial practices like the collection of information for billing purposes. [Read more…]

The Dot-Gay Alliance is planning to allocate 51% of its profits to different lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality and support organizations, making each .gay web address owner a contributor for the fight for LGBT equal rights.

On the other hand, DotGay LLC is planning to build communities around .gay. Imagine hotels.gay, lawyers.gay, health.gay, among others. It’s a pretty neat idea, admittedly.

What would complicate matters with future domain name suffixes is the news that the U.S. government is looking into gaining veto power over domain name suffixes. Currently, ICANN’s policy is to just ensure that a domain name suffix does not offend accepted legal norms of morality and public order that are recognized under principles of international law.

Is email becoming a thing of the past? Yes, if you are to ask 12 to 17 year olds in the US.

comScore’s report on 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review revealed that usage among teens went down by 59% last year. Even young adults used email lesser last year by 18% Overall usage of email dropped by a less alarming rate of 8%

Alarming? Maybe. So what’s becoming the choice for teens when it comes to form of communicaton? Text messaging, Facebook and Twitter. It’s all about informal and short form of writing for them. Email is just too much for this age group.

All is not lost for email as older people (55 to 64 year olds) in the U.S. still use email. In fact, they used it more in 2010 than the previous year.

What we would want to see now is the promised Facebook integrated messaging system. That is supposed to make email, as we know it today, a thing of the past. Well, as hinted by Mark Zuckerberg. Where is it, by the way?

In the meantime, keep email alive. You can try sending me one at [email protected] I’ll reply.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook experienced karma first-hand as Lovely Faces, a dating website, featured 250,000 profiles of men and women whose photos were scraped without permission from the social network.

Lovely Faces founders Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico used an automated software that scraped the photos and profiles of Facebook users over a period of time. In a site that explains their purpose for Lovely Faces, the duo was very clear about their plan: steal 1 million Facebook profiles, filter them with face-recognition software, and post them on a custom-made dating website sorted by their facial expressions characteristics. Here’s a more detailed explanation on how they did it. They also have a video to go with it. [Read more…]

It was the best opportunity to capture the attention of millions of viewers. In fact, all eyes were glued as people settled down on the Cowboys Stadium and on their couches to watch Super Bowl XLV. Everything was about Greenbay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers but the National Anthem belonged to Christina Aguillera.

Unfortunately, she delivered the Superbowl’s first fumble by messing up the lyrics of the “Star -Spangled Banner.”

Instead of “O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?,” she said, “What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last gleaming?” a line that she already delivered earlier.

Just like any fumble in this day and age, it gets captured in video via YouTube and people show their annoyance through Twitter. The video is here while here’s a sample of some Twitter posts:

“Sad Really: Shoutout to Cristina Aguillera for the first fumble of the Super Bowl,” @MickeyFactz said.

“Christina Aguillera butchered the melody and messed up the lyrics,” says @judy4arizona.

“I think Christina Aguillera spent too much time Just showing off her vocal range and lost the plot a bit!” according to @piersmorgan. [Read more…]

Strategist News has launched an online destination that aims to deliver business news and blog posts that are recommended by like-minded professionals.

The new website hopes to set itself apart with the quality of its community and resulting content selection. Members are a diverse group of business, investment and marketing strategists with an intellectually curious attitude. Blog posts and news articles are selected and ranked based on the number of recommendations.

Strategist News also announced its 2009 Top 50 Business Blogs, an annual ranking of best business blogs on the web. The ranking aspires to shed light on the best business bloggers, based on their popularity, credibility and relevance, from the point of view of business professionals.

Only time will tell if Strategist News can really deliver on its promise of high quality business news and blog posts.

Beauty site Daily Makeover has added an elite group of beauty and fashion bloggers called Beauty Bloggerati. Those chosen to join the new team of experts is expected to enhance its online community of four million women with a combination of in-depth, beauty and fashion news for all women across all demographics.

The Beauty Bloggerati is an invitation only editorial initiative that brings together the leading beauty bloggers in the country in categories including: makeup, skincare, hairstyles, hair care, green beauty, weddings, travel beauty and mom beauty. The group of bloggers will serve as expert beauty beat reporters, enriching Daily Makeover’s in-depth beauty and fashion news with information from their area of expertise. This editorial initiative also creates a unique opportunity for advertisers to connect with millions of women, a highly desirable demographic.

If you’ve been following the NBA Playoffs, then you would agree with me that the series between Denver Nuggets and Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks is exciting. The series is laced with flagrant fouls and thrash-talking (typical NBA). One fight that’s brewing also is the war of words that’s going on between Mark Cuban and Kenyon Martin.

So here’s what happened. After his team lost game 3 on a controversial non-call, Cuban heard a fan screaming about the Nuggets being thugs. Cuban turned to Martin’s mom and said, “that includes your son.”

That started it all. The press reported it as if it originated from Cuban.

“Don’t say nothing to my kids or my family. If you got something to say, say it to me. But I’m going to take care of it. I’m not going to do the whole media thing, back and forth. That’s his thing. I’m more of a face-to-face type of dude. So whenever the opportunity presents itself, then I will address it,” Martin responded.

With the possible confrontation between the two, Cuban quickly issued an apology to Kenyon Martin and his mom through a blog post.

“So at this point I would like to apologize to you and your mom KMart for my comment. I should have not said anything and I was wrong. Hopefully you will accept the apology and we can move on.

When the series comes back to Dallas, your family, and the family of other Nuggets players are welcome to stay in my suite, with my family. Its amazing how tempers mellow when real people talk to each other and realize that its still just a game.”

Mediabistro.com has launched BayNewser.com, a blog that reports on San Francisco and Silicon Valley media landscape.

BayNewser.com will deliver the news about the news in the Bay Area, break media stories from Russian Hill to Menlo Park, and cover the new media ventures the rest of us only learn about later. From Google to Craigslist, from the Chronicle to the Merc, from KNTV to KCBS – BayNewser.com will attempt to be the one-stop source for news about the Bay Area news media.

Actress Mia Farrow would like to draw attention to Darfur. She started her hunger strike 10 days ago and is regularly updating her blog and YouTube channel to keep all of us updated.

She urges everyone to call the White House at 202-456-1111 and remind President Barack Obama of his promise to help in ending the tragedy in Darfur..

“People want to go home. They want to go back to their villages to rebuild. They want peace and security. They haven’t had that for two long. We can all do something. We have a voice. if we don’t use it now then who are we?” Farrow said in a video post.

Magician David Blaine called on Farrow before she started with the hunger strike and gave tips on how to prepare and what to expect.

“He said after 6 days I wont feel hunger. He told me to drink 4 liters of water,” she said.